Book of Common Prayer
Tell of All His Wondrous Works
105 (A)Oh give thanks to the Lord; (B)call upon his name;
(C)make known his deeds among the peoples!
2 Sing to him, sing praises to him;
(D)tell of all his wondrous works!
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
4 Seek the Lord and his (E)strength;
(F)seek his presence continually!
5 Remember the (G)wondrous works that he has done,
his miracles, and (H)the judgments he uttered,
6 O offspring of (I)Abraham, his servant,
children of Jacob, his (J)chosen ones!
7 He is the Lord our God;
his (K)judgments are in all the earth.
8 He (L)remembers his covenant forever,
the word that he commanded, for (M)a thousand generations,
9 (N)the covenant that he made with Abraham,
his (O)sworn promise to Isaac,
10 which he confirmed to (P)Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, (Q)“To you I will give the land of Canaan
as (R)your portion for an inheritance.”
12 When they were (S)few in number,
of little account, and (T)sojourners in it,
13 wandering from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another people,
14 he (U)allowed no one to oppress them;
he (V)rebuked kings on their account,
15 saying, (W)“Touch not my anointed ones,
do my prophets no harm!”
16 When he (X)summoned a famine on the land
and (Y)broke all supply[a] of bread,
17 he had (Z)sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who was (AA)sold as a slave.
18 His (AB)feet were hurt with fetters;
his neck was put in a collar of iron;
19 until (AC)what he had said came to pass,
the word of the Lord (AD)tested him.
20 (AE)The king sent and (AF)released him;
the ruler of the peoples set him free;
21 he (AG)made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions,
22 to bind[b] his princes at his pleasure
and to teach his elders wisdom.
23 Then (AH)Israel came to Egypt;
Jacob (AI)sojourned in (AJ)the land of Ham.
24 And the Lord (AK)made his people very fruitful
and made them stronger than their foes.
25 He (AL)turned their hearts to hate his people,
to (AM)deal craftily with his servants.
26 He (AN)sent Moses, his servant,
and Aaron, (AO)whom he had chosen.
27 (AP)They performed his signs among them
and miracles in (AQ)the land of Ham.
28 He (AR)sent darkness, and made the land dark;
they (AS)did not rebel[c] against his words.
29 He turned their waters into blood
and (AT)caused their fish to die.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even in (AU)the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and there came (AV)swarms of flies,
(AW)and gnats throughout their country.
32 He gave them hail for rain,
and fiery (AX)lightning bolts through their land.
33 He struck down their vines and fig trees,
and (AY)shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke, and the (AZ)locusts came,
young locusts without number,
35 which devoured all the vegetation in their land
and ate up the fruit of their ground.
36 He (BA)struck down all the firstborn in their land,
(BB)the firstfruits of all their strength.
37 Then he brought out Israel with (BC)silver and gold,
and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.
38 (BD)Egypt was glad when they departed,
for (BE)dread of them had fallen upon it.
39 He (BF)spread a cloud for a covering,
and fire to give light by night.
40 (BG)They asked, and he (BH)brought quail,
and gave them (BI)bread from heaven in abundance.
41 He opened the rock, and (BJ)water gushed out;
it flowed through (BK)the desert like a river.
42 For he (BL)remembered his holy promise,
and (BM)Abraham, his servant.
The Lord Rebukes the Priests
2 “And now, (A)O priests, (B)this command is for you. 2 (C)If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send (D)the curse upon you and I will curse (E)your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. 3 Behold, (F)I will rebuke your offspring,[a] and (G)spread dung on your faces, the (H)dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.[b] 4 So shall you know that I have sent (I)this command to you, that (J)my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. 5 My covenant with him was one of life and (K)peace, and I gave them to him. (L)It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. 6 (M)True instruction[c] was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he (N)turned many from iniquity. 7 For (O)the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people[d] should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8 But you have turned aside from the way. (P)You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted (Q)the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, 9 and so (R)I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but (S)show partiality in your instruction.”
Judah Profaned the Covenant
10 Have we not all (T)one Father? Has not (U)one God created us? Why then are we (V)faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been (W)faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For (X)Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant[e] of the man who does this, who (Y)brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!
13 And this second thing you do. (Z)You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 (AA)But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord (AB)was witness between you and the wife of your youth, (AC)to whom (AD)you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 (AE)Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union?[f] And what was the one God[g] seeking?[h] (AF)Godly offspring. So guard yourselves[i] in your spirit, and let none of you be (AG)faithless to the wife of your youth. 16 “For (AH)the man who does not love his wife but divorces her,[j] says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers[k] his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and (AI)do not be faithless.”
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, (A)“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For (B)you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, (C)“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. (D)All such boasting is evil. 17 (E)So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Warning to the Rich
5 Come now, (F)you rich, weep and howl for the (G)miseries that are coming upon you. 2 (H)Your riches have rotted and (I)your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. (J)You have laid up treasure (K)in the last days. 4 Behold, (L)the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and (M)the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of (N)the Lord of hosts. 5 (O)You have lived on the earth in luxury and (P)in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in (Q)a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and (R)murdered (S)the righteous person. He does not resist you.
The Coming of the Kingdom
20 Being asked by the Pharisees (A)when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God (B)is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor (C)will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”[a]
22 And he said to the disciples, (D)“The days are coming when you will desire (E)to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 (F)And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 24 (G)For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be (H)in his day.[b] 25 But first (I)he must suffer many things and (J)be rejected by this generation. 26 (K)Just as it was in the days of (L)Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 (M)They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of (N)Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 (O)but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30 so will it be (P)on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, (Q)let the one who is on (R)the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 (S)Remember Lot's wife. 33 (T)Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will (U)keep it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35 (V)There will be two women (W)grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.”[c] 37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, (X)“Where the corpse[d] is, there the vultures[e] will gather.”
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.